Final moments: David Tremlett told the court that he and murdered teenager Dinah McNicol hitched two lifts before they went their separate ways

The boyfriend of 18-year-old Dinah McNicol who was murdered and buried in a garden said the last time he saw her she was intending to travel home.

David Tremlett and Dinah hitchhiked home together after meeting at a music festival in Liphook, Hampshire, in August 1991.

Mr Tremlett was the last person to admit seeing the A-Level student alive. Her body was discovered buried in a garden in Margate, Kent, in 2007 along with the remains of Scottish schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, 15.

Peter Tobin, 62, from Johnstone in Renfrewshire, denies murdering Dinah McNichol from Tillingham in Essex. He has already been convicted of murdering Vicky Hamilton and is currently serving a life sentence.

Mr Tremlett, who lived with his mother in Redhill in Surrey told the jury he met Dinah on the Sunday at the festival and they slept in a tent together that night.

Standing in the witness box at Chelmsford Crown Court wearing a white shirt and dark trousers, he told the court that Dinah, who was wearing a headscarf, helped him pack up the tent as they made plans to hitchhike back to their homes in Surrey and Essex.

He told the court they got two lifts before being picked up on the A3 by a lone man with 'straw coloured' hair who was driving a light green coloured four-door car.

Mr Tremlett said: 'We travelled together. I got into the back seat and Dinah the front passenger side. I believe there was a child seat in the back.

'It was just the driver, a man I would say between late 30s and late 40s. He was a normal type of height with straw coloured hair, wavy about two or three inches.

'Fairly early into the journey it was ascertained we were going to different places, I was going to Surrey and Dinah was going to Essex.'

Tragic end: The body of Dinah McNicol (left)
was found in a garden in Margate, Kent, in 2007 along with the remains
of Scottish schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, 15

He said the driver took them along the M25 and dropped him off at junction eight where Dinah stayed in the car.

'She wrote down her telephone number and passed it to me. (I called) a good few times but I couldn't get an answer, I got through to an answer phone and don't know if I left a message.'

Mr Tremlett said Dinah told him she was heading 'home'.

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Chelmsford Crown Court has already heard how Tobin used to travel from his home in Margate, Kent, to visit his son David in Portsmouth at the weekends - a route which would have taken him past the young hitchhikers.

On trial: Peter Tobin, who is already serving life for the murder of Vicky Hamilton, denies murdering Dinah McNichol

The jury was told Dinah had been awarded £2,700 compensation for her mother's death in a car crash and she had put it into an Abbey National account for 'her future education'.

She had only taken out £220. But just four weeks after she vanished the account had been 'virtually cleaned out'.

William Clegg QC, prosecuting, said withdrawals were made from ATMs in Margate and Ramsgate in Kent, Brighton, where Tobin used to live and in Portsmouth where he visited his son.

Essex Police officers unearthed the bodies of Dinah and Vicky in November 2007 after 'suspicion fell' on Tobin. They dug up the garden of the three-bedroom mid terrace home where he had lived.

Dinah's body was discovered with her wrists and ankles tied and her headscarf knotted in her mouth as a gag. She is believed to have died from strangulation.

Forensic testing of the rubbish bags used to wrap Dinah's body found four prints, three thumb and one finger, belonging to Tobin, the jury heard.

Traces of the prescription anti-depressant drug Amitriptyline were also found in Dinah's body but she had never been prescribed it, the court was told.

But Tobin had been taking Amitriptyline, known as tryptizol, at the time of her disappearance and had been admitted to hospital after an overdose of the drug in April 1990.

The court heard he was convicted of the rape and buggery of a 14-year-old girl and an indecent assault of another girl in May 1994 and was found to have given each the same drug, which causes drowsiness and dizzyness.

It was also found in Vicky's system, the jury was told.

Grisly find: An aerial view of the house on Irvine Drive, Margate, Kent (third from left) once occupied by Peter Tobin and where the bodies of Dinah and Vicky were found buried

Mr Clegg said the conviction for Vicky's murder and the similarity between her case, the two rapes and Dinah's death pointed to Tobin's guilt.

He said that there was a 'sexual motive' behind Dinah's killing which linked with Tobin's other crimes.

Mr Clegg added: 'You may conclude that, although there is no evidence of rape in this case, the body was so decomposed that such evidence could have been lost. There was clearly a sexual motive behind the abduction and murder of Dinah.

'It would mean that he had not just the propensity to abduct and murder young girls but also the propensity to seek sexual pleasure from them while he held them prisoner.'

Tobin was arrested on January 15 2008 and was interviewed over three days during which time he made no comment.